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Spare a thought for poor Matt Furie, a wonderful indie comics creator whose Boys' Club comics featured a lovable frog called Pepe that was adopted by the neofascist movement (the so-called "alt-right") as a symbol for racism, xenophobia, homophobia, transphobia and misogyny.

Furie tried to rehabilitate his creation, which is classed by the Anti-Defamation League as a hate symbol, but did not succeed.

So yesterday, in a single page comic included in the Free Comic Book Day title World's Greatest Comics, Matt Furie killed off his creation.

I really feel for Furie -- it's hard to imagine a shittier fate for one's lovable creation that for it to be transformed into a symbol used by the worst people on the internet to harass and terrorize people. Furie and Fantagraphics published a Boys' Club anthology last year -- you can support him by getting a copy.

Today, on Free Comic Book Day, as part of Worlds Greatest Cartoonists, Furie published a one-page comicof Pepes wake. In the strip, Pepe lies in a casket while his Boys Club friends Landwolf, Brett, and Andy gather round to memorialize him. Though the tone is still marked by irreverent, slacker humor (Landwolf pours booze on Pepes face to toast him), its a clear declaration that Pepe is now dead. The alt-right has killed the joy.

Guess What Happened to Pepe the Frog on Free Comic Book Day [Marykate Jasper/The Mary Sue]

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Matt Furie celebrated yesterday's Free Comic Book Day by killing off Pepe the Frog - Boing Boing